Building record 5993/0/14 - Bluestone Cottages, Ashton Wold Estate

1 and 2 Bluestone Cottage was built as accomodation for staff working on the Ashton Wold Estate in the early 20th century. Formerly known as Lutton Road Cottages the building is a pair of two-storey semi-detached cottages, built to the designs of WIlliam Huckvale during the interwar years. The main facing materials are rock-faced limestone that is snecked, with Collywestern slates used for the roof covering. It seems that the original roof was thatched. The building is built to a rectangular plan with a tall chimney stack on each end and a central ridge stack. The cottages have hipped roofs and lean-to stores. A detached single-storey wash house lies to the rear of the cottages. The ground floor of each cottage comprises a kitchen, bathroom and dining room, hall and sitting room. A staircase leads up to the first floor where there are two bedrooms and a bathroom. There are some built in cupboards with original doors, mid 20th century fireplaces and some exposed timbers in the bedroom.

{1} The Ashton Estate, stretching from the River Nene near Oundle in the west to Ashton Wold in the east, has been occupied since Roman times. In the 18th century it was a well-known sporting estate, with avenues of chestnut trees planted in a cross as rides, and a number of fox coverts. In the early 19th century the estate was owned by William Walcot and was largely farmed by tenants, with Ashton Wold continuing as a sporting ground. However, there is no evidence that it had ever contained a manor house, and when in 1860 it was purchased by Lionel Rothschild the sale particulars describe it as 'a very valuable and important landed estate', with sporting advantages, but no house adapted for the occupation of a gentleman. Both Lionel Rothschild and his son Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915), showed little interest in estate, and the only structural work undertaken in the 19th century was the building of a hunting lodge at Ashton Wold. However, when Lord Rothschild's second son, Nathaniel Charles (1877-1923) - known as Charles - discovered Ashton by accident, he was so impressed by the rich fauna and flora of Ashton Wold that he persuaded his father to build him a house on the site of the hunting lodge. Lord Rothschild commissioned William Huckvale to design not only a house, but a model farm, an entire complement of estate buildings which included the Steward's house, stables, gardeners' accommodation, a building to house a fire engine, a petrol store, kennels (now derelict) and a dog hospital. Most of the cottages at nearby Ashton were rebuilt to create a model village. The Rothschilds also became the first landowners in the country to provide their tenants with the luxury of both running filtered water and electricity, the latter generated by turbines housed in an old mill below the village on the River Nene, from where water was pumped to a water tower and so to the estate buildings. Each cottage had a bath house and was placed in a large garden planted with a lilac, a laburnum and fruit trees.
High quality design and workmanship were consistent themes throughout the estate, where traditional vernacular building traditions - Collyweston stone slate and thatch roof coverings, steeply pitched roofs, tall chimneys, limestone masonry walling and dressings and mullioned windows were all faithfully referenced. Simple working buildings - cart hovels, wash houses and potting sheds - were consciously afforded the same care as were the dwellings, farmsteads and garden structures.

1 & 2 Bluestone Cottage was built as accommodation for estate staff in the early C20. They appear to have each been extended to provide a small attached store. It is also understood that the original thatched roof had to be replaced with slates after burning debris from an aircraft that had been hit during a WWII dogfight set it ablaze.

Little is known about William Huckvale (1847-1936) who worked mainly for the Rothschilds and designed a number of buildings for them on the Tring Park and Aston Clinton estates, undertook considerable work at the Rothschild bank in New Court in the City of London, and was the architect for the Royal Mint Refinery. The quality of his work is reflected in the 42 listed buildings he already has to his name, 13 in Tring and 29 on the Ashton Estate.

The building is a pair of two-storey semi-detached cottages, built to the designs of William Huckvale during the interwar years. The main facing materials are rock-faced limestone that is snecked, with Collyweston slates used for the roof covering.

The plan-form is rectangular and the building is laid out on an east-west alignment. The building has a tall dressed stone chimney stack on each flank and a similar central ridge stack. The principal elevation has a two-storey cross-wing at each end. The cottages have hipped roofs and lean-to stores added at a later date. The roof of the main range sweeps down between the pair of cross-wings, bringing the eaves to ground floor level at that point. There is a hipped, roof-dormer aligned centrally below the central ridge stack and directly over the main entrance to each cottage. The fenestration features 2, 3 and 4 light mullioned windows in dressed stone - the leaded lights have since been replaced with single panes.

The rear elevation (north) has a plain façade with its eaves at first floor level, and half-dormers at each end. There are two-light mullioned windows and single pane windows at ground and first floor and a rear entrance door to each dwelling. The east and west elevations each have a cat-slide roof and vertical boarded doors allowing access to a lean-to store.

A detached single-storey wash house lies to the rear of the cottages. It is built in the same Vernacular Revival style as the cottages using the similar materials and detailing and it has a hipped roof of Collyweston slate with a tall stone chimney stack.

Each cottage at ground floor, comprises a kitchen, bathroom and dining room on the north side and hall and sitting room on the south side. A staircase leads up to the first floor where there are two bedrooms and a bathroom. There are some built cupboards with original doors, mid 20th century fireplaces and some exposed timbers in the bedrooms.

1and 2 Bluestone Cottage, Polebrook is not recommended for designation for the following principal reasons. It has been altered with consequent loss of its original roof as well as the addition of side extensions, which has compromised the exterior appearance and architectural integrity of the building;

{2} An independent survey has concluded that the attached side outbuildings were not later additions but were original to the property. There are two items of evidence for this: 1) is the physical construction showing brickwork to the main house end wall within these stores. Had these not been there originally this would have been stonework as per remainder of the elevations. 2) The general design by Huckvale tended to have a low sweeping end roof to the elevation normally thatched in the case of this estate. This store configuration is typical of that design without them the elevation would be severely stunted

<1> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File (Report). SNN111579.

<2> Historic England, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments, Email communication Gary Scott (Scott Architectural), building survey, 26-MAR-2015. (Oral Report). SNN111577.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:57PM